1945 Present: Keuneman S.P.J.

WOOLDRIDGE, Petitioner, and WOOLDRIDGE, Respondent.

IN THE MATTER OF A PETITION UNDER THE CEYLON DIVORCE JURISDICTION
ORDER IN COUNCIL 1936, AND THE CEYLON (NON-
DOMICILED PARTIES) DIVORCE RULES, 1936.

Divorce Suit No. 34.

Divorce-Desertion as ground-Requirements necessary to confer jurisdiction on Court-Indian and Colonial Divorce Jurisdiction Act, 1940 (3 and i Geo. 6, c. 35) s. 2.

In a suit for dissolution of marriage on the ground of desertion, under section 2 of the Indian and Colonial Jurisdiction Act, 1940, the only two requirements to confer jurisdiction on the Court are that the plaintiff resided in Ceylon at the time of the petition and that the parties to the marriage last resided together in Ceylon. The alternative requirement that the marriage should have been solemnized in Ceylon has no applica-tion to suits on other grounds than " adultery, cruelty, or crime ".

ACTION for divorce under the Indian and Colonial Divorce Jurisdiction Act of 1926.

E. F. N. Gratiaen, for the petitioner.

No appearance for the respondent.

November 15, 1945. KEUNEMAN S.P.J.-

In this case Col. Wooldridge seeks